100.63%

A bit overdue, but I just wanted to chronicle my amazing upset victory in Genetics. Contrast this post with my older post 89.984%. Yes, I am sure you are all wondering how my Final managed to bring my total grade up by eleven points. I'll tell you now that the final was worth 150 out of 600 points. I'm sure the more astute of you have already gotten out your calculators and realized that this number combination is impossible. The test simply isn't worth enough.

Well, it turns out that the lowest test grade in Genetics is replaced by your test grade. Since I got an almost perfect score on the Genetics test (159.5/150+10 EC), my lowest grade (80%, ugh) was wiped away like it had never happened! Ha ha ha! It was replaced with an over 100% monstrocity. Pretty cool, right? That's how I got over 100% on my overall grade when my pre-final grade was scraping the underside of an A.

Huh, I won

If it seems that I don't post for two days and then all of a sudden I make two posts, you are right. That's just how it is. When I say something, I usually think up a couple more topics I wanted to mention. Anyway, I know you will all be thrilled but I won the 7 extra credit points (that I probably didn't need) in Latin class for my Latin skit. It was dreadfully dull and totally lackluster as a performance, but apparently Dr. Davies liked it. It must have been because we made so few grammatical errors. :)

Now I am probably certainly most definitely going to get an A in this class

Vulcan Trance

Good afternoon world. I just finished two super hard super critical finals and I'm feeling great. Last Tuesday I began my deep Vulcan trance that it is impossible to wake me from wherein all I do is meditate on my test subjects. You probably wouldn't understand because you are just an emotional human, but it is very important for getting good grades on tests.

I'm now waiting for the results of my finals to start pouring in. I already have two results to share. First, my Physics Lab Final, I got a 96!!! Woo hoo! That makes my grade an A! I'm so happy! My second bit of news is my Genetics test. I know what you're thinking: Hey! You took the Genetics test 3 hours ago! You can't possibly have it back yet!

Shows what you know. Dr. Kovach is probably the most efficient teacher I have ever had. Homework is always handed back really really insanely fast. It is incredible. And the amount of information she can pack into one lecture is mind-blowing. Also, I only have news on half my test: the scantron half. Understand now, humans? Anyway, when I was walking past her office after my Physics test she asked me if I wanted to see my scantron. I said sure. Here it is... 100%! Perfect score! HA HA HA HA HA! I'm going to bust into the heavens of A-dom! Woo hoo!

I mean, how logical.

Let-down!

The Genetics Test was put off until Thursday! ARGH! It seems like every time I'm ready for something, it is pushed back. Weather, bomb threats, unknown conflicts of time, everything seems to be against me! I guess this has just been a weird semester, I just hope that all this bouncing around isn't going to adversely affect my ultimate grade. Sigh.

Just three more weeks until Finals. Keep it together for just a bit longer.

Finally!

Yahoo! Finals are over! I'm done! I haven't seen my report card yet but I have the 4.0 feeling in my gut. Yay! It would be very heart-breaking to find a B on my next report card with all this optimism in the air. Anyways, I'm done for the winter. There's lots of rejoicing and celebrating going on in our house. God celebrated by having it snow this morning. :D

Thank you God for all the beautiful snow.

Lazy

AAAAAAAAAH!!! He did it again! That Dr. Davies slipped another obscure adjective onto his test! This time it was the word for "lazy." Considering that over the entire course we have only covered three adjectives, happy, angry, and miraculous, I would think that the adjectives on the test would be slightly more predictable! The last one was "clever." We hadn't even used clever yet! It turned up in the next chapter! Of course, we had already done lazy by the time of the final, but I don't think it turned up in more than one chapter.

Perhaps if I hadn't been so ignavus, I would have studied more adjectives. Although I would have to be pretty callidus to figure out which obscure adjective he was going to put on the test.

Portfolio Power!

Hoorah! The Portfolio for the English class has my stomach turning loops since you have to turn it in on Wednesday before 4:00 to him personally or you get a 0! It's like some sort of ninja trial: Find me before sunset and give me the sacred manilla envelope or you will not learn the secret art of English! Fortunately I have a hint: He will be in his office all day, though he may run out for a few minutes to get lunch.

I was writing the "cover letter" for the portfolio, which is pretty much two paragraphs about what you learned over the semester, and it felt like I was writing a blog post about English class. Although I used bigger words and fancier sentence structure and less "Hoorah!"s.

Swine Flu

Hey, there's an epidemic spreading through the country. It is not only very dangerous and incurable but it has a really dumb name. It's right now competing with the Avian Flu. That's a pretty dumb name too. It should be called the Demon Flu or the Older Sister Flu or something else that really strikes fear into the heart of victims. You know, then the doctor could say "You have the Death Flu. It currently has no cure." Whereupon the victims would show symptoms of nausea and fainting.

Currently, Mom is afraid that we have it so she wants us not to contaminate anyone until after Heather's graduation party on Sunday. Personally, I'm not that scared because I have a Super Immune System. It's so awesome that I suspect that I programmed it myself when I wasn't looking. It works something like this:

If LargeAnnoyingLookingAppointment=1
Sickness = 1
else
Sickness = 0
endif

I don't get sick when I'm having fun, off from school, or looking down the barrel of the most important test of the year (SAT, ACT, finals, etc.) I'm hoping that my friends will get better in time for their finals. I could always loan them my immune system if I could only find my USB port.

Easy Finals

Well there's good news in this post. (If any of you don't want to hear it, you can just close this window right now.)

I have such an enormous 'A' in biology that I only have to make a 24/50 (48%) on the final to get an 'A' in the course. Yes, it is amazing. I intend to work hard anyway, but it is a relief to know that I have an enormous safety net. It keeps me from being stressed out.

My other final is in Chemistry. I'm not too worried about it since I just took an hour long practice test and made a B:89%. The grades there are such that I only have to make a C:71% to get an 'A.' It's terrific.

Yes, let this be a lesson to all: If you don't leave everything off until the last minute then your last minute will not be as impossibly overwhelming as everyone else's.

Trends are bad, lack of trends is worse.

In Chemistry there are dozens of trends on the periodic table that we need to memorize. Atoms are bigger to the left and down. Atoms are more electronegative to the right and up. Atoms are more likely to lose electrons if they're to the left and more likely to gain electrons if they're to the right. But, as much as I hate memorizing trends, I have discovered something even worse.

As a general rule if an atom forms molecules it has a higher boiling point if it is bigger which is lower on the table but if it forms bonds between atoms then it has a higher boiling point if it is higher up on the table. I always thought molecules WERE bonds between atoms. Apparently not.

Example: In group 14, Carbon has the highest boiling point, Tin has the lowest. In group 17 (Halogens), Iodine has the highest boiling point and Fluorine has the lowest. Group 18 (Nobles Gases) have the same rule as group 17.

The only reason I really care is that I got a 99% on my chemistry test because I said Helium had the highest boiling point of the noble gases instead of Xenon. Annoying.

What is its mouth doing down there?

Today I had a big bad Biology test. All of the questions were really easy, for example: "What is the phylum name of a jellyfish. What is the phylum name of an earthworm. What is the phylum name of an insect." Since the only thing we have been studying is phylum names, it was a cinch. Some questions were really hard, though. Here are a couple that I'm pretty sure I got wrong:

1) What is the name of the tissue that connects the intestines.
Ans: Mesentery. (I guessed Mesoderm. I was sort of close if you count by syllables.)
2) What is the name of this organism?
Ans: Planaria. (I guessed Platyhelminthe which is the phylum name of the Planaria. I was close.)
3) What is this structure?
Ans: Mouth. (I guessed ovary because it was in the worm's... well the area where the ovary should be.)

Of course, the four extra credit questions were a breeze so I'm pretty sure I got over 100% again. That would be convenient.

Double Whammy

Today I have two tests. This is annoying because usually after one test I enter a zombified state and crash into things. Too much thinking. Therefore I will be completely brain-dead during my second test, which is in Chemistry. Fortunately all my study for the Chemistry Lab test I did yesterday doubles as study for today's test so I might manage to pull off two 'A's.

The last time I did two tests on the same day I got a 'B' in my second test. Yes, it is true. I read my test paper afterwards and it looked like it had been written by a monkey. It was saturated with careless errors. In fact, since it was a chemistry test, it was SUPER-SATURATED, meaning that the ion product was greater than the equlibrium constant. It was truly pathetic. I managed to persuade him to give me half credit on one question where I completely solved it and then put a 6 down instead of a 5. I amaze myself sometimes.

Chemistry FIIIIIIIINAAAAAAAAL

Wow. What a blast. Today was my final in my Chemistry Lab. 30 minutes before the class I sat down and studied like I had never studied before, which I hadn't. I think I got an 'A' anyway. It's amazing what a little bit of last second cramming can do.

Not really. I've been studying this bloodsucker of a test for a week. I even created a set of programs that would give randomly generated Chemistry questions to me. I learn better when I teach someone, so I programmed the program so that it could teach me, and it worked. I got twice the benefit. Hooray for Dark Basic!

The funny thing was that there were two questions on the test which asked about material that I only learned while sitting out in the hall waiting for the test. It was divine providence I tell you

Test-happy teachers

I bet most of you still thought finals week was one week. Gee, what rock have you guys been living under? This next week will be my last week of peace. After that I have eight tests in two weeks.

Most of you are thinking, but Duncan you only take four classes and Theatre class isn't even giving you a final. You would be right. In two weeks I will have eight tests in three subjects. What is this world coming too?

Not only that but Theatre, instead of contributing to my enormous number of tests has a "Final Project." I'm supposed to put on a scene from "Our Town" with my class complete with props and costumes. That will obviously not detract from the time I spend studying for tests in the slightest.

In addition, three of the tests are "cumulative" which means I'm going to have to remember everything I studied during the entire semester. Since I can't even remember what happened before spring break it looks like I'm doomed.